Back To The Source at Marian Goodman gallery has a new selection of seminal works from Ana Mendieta. Attention upon Ana Mendieta’s legacy has grown as more people have discovered her work and have come to recognize how she has shaped an interesting conversation between earth art, ownership and immigration as well as femininity.
Ana Mendieta ( b. 1948 – d. 1985 ) née in Havana, Cuba passed in New York City in the eighties. Her life spanned between countries and was heavily colored by her immigration from Cuba in 1961; her legacy after her suspicious passing in 1985 lives on. Her work is very alive forty years after her passing. Entitled Back To The Source, this exhibition explores works from 1972 to 1985. The work was created in Iowa, Mexico and Cuba, and the works are between sculpture, film, as well as some drawings and photographs.
These works are often painfully constructed and feel incredibly personal, particularly the photograph, el corazon. The work untitled (el corazon) by Ana Mendieta creates a real feeling of intrigue and heartbreak as you see a(n animal) heart stuck upon a twig, hanging there precariously. Her work has always been able to draw you in as you feel she has “ thrown myself into the very elements that produced me using the earth as my canvas and my soul as my tools” Mendieta, 17th March 1982. The artist often explores earth art and nature, and its relationship with humanity.
Another notable work from this show is Ñañigo Burial (47 ritual candles), which burns (live) in the gallery. The work is a unique experience, because the candles which take the form of burial silhouette feel alive, haunting even, and remind one of the passage of time as the candles drip into the floor. As time shifts the forms within this sculpture, we are more and more aware of time passing and the artists passing. The candles offer protection in the afro – cuban culture, traditionally and make her death feel continuous.
Her film excerpts and photographs feel alive as they draw in all that nature has to offer towards her practice, whether it be gunpowder, feathers, red paint, earth and flames. Her existence comes alive in these stills and shorts. The show heavily focuses on the silueta series (her profile, her form). Another highlight is her short film Birth, featuring gunpowder – where smoke billows giving ‘birth’. Her work, while working with the elemental, does not age, because it focuses on what will always be relevant – humanity facing earth, and their very two interactions- endlessly entangled in one another.
ANA MENDIETA, Back to the Source, 7th November – 17th January 2026 Marian Goodman
